Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
July 28, 2007
The Key Questions While Bombing Afghanistan

Situation:
Pilot and copilot are patrolling over Helmand, Afghanistan at 15,000ft. The copilot is monitoring the look-down camera picture.

Dialog:
C: There is a person next to a hut at 2 o’clock.
P: Okay, about time something happens. Let’s start with the key questions. Does that person wear civilian clothes?
C: That seems to be the case.
P: Is that person in civil clothes a male person?
C: Well, looks male to me.
P: Is that male person in civil clothes between 7 and 70 years old?
C: That could very well be so.
P: Ok, that’s a Talib. Release the bombs now, now, NOW.

One of the raids by NATO hit houses in the Girishk district of Helmand province on Thursday evening, killing up to 50 civilians, a group of some 20 residents reported to journalists in Kandahar, the main city in the south.

[…]

"We have no reports of any such incidents in Girishk yesterday at all. There have been no people taken to the hospital … in relation to anything around Girishk," said [a spokesman for British forces in Helmand,] Lieutenant-Colonel Charlie Mayo.

"Because the Taliban don’t wear uniforms like us, as soon as they are killed, they are called civilians, the key is are they male or female and if they are male, what age are they?"
Dozens of Afghan civilians die in air raids: residents

Comments

The Vietcong never wore uniforms, and anybody living in a “VC village” was considered a fair target.

Posted by: ralphieboy | Jul 28 2007 18:58 utc | 1

If you’ve seen the YouTube video of US troops sniping Afghan civilians with 50-cal from a mile away, literally dismembering the Afghan on impact, and the snipers “whoo-hoo’s” all around, that just about encapsulates American’s obsession with sniping and high altitude bombing, in their choice of what to teach their children, be it Grand Theft Auto, Gear of War or Halo.
All they need to refine is remote UAV telephony, on-the-fly graphic synthesis and artificial gaming context, then our kids can sit safe in their bedrooms and execute Afghans wirelessly.
Whoo-hoo!

Posted by: Wu Hu | Jul 29 2007 5:45 utc | 2

Bernhard, I hope you realize that future soldiers will be synchronized with powerful real-time computers at CentCom.
They will wear helemts with visors presenting them with graphic overlays identifying individuals with icons indicating, for example, whether they should be “ignored”, “pacified for interrogation” or “eliminated”.
This will mean no more such incidents will occur in the future! Only in a (rare) case of a computer glitch will innocent civilians be killed! Although unfortunate, the computer paradigms will, of course, be adjusted and, most important, no one will be held responsible.

Posted by: Chuck Cliff | Jul 29 2007 7:14 utc | 3

The resistance in Afgh. is gearing up, emboldened in part by the Iraq example.
OK the poppy, now heroin, trade keeps the country alive, with a *wink wink* from NATO /USuk and NGOs. The money is staggering, everyone is on the take.
China can furnish lacy bras and tennis shoes, electronics, Afgh. can provide street heroin, thus tremendous profit for everyone which keeps the ppl quiet, trickle down works, somewhat.
Still there are some losers, and some refusniks. Some are very poor, others very moral, they hate the dependency on local war-drug-Gvmt. types, Westerners trading on their back. Aids, prostitution, beggar children, their deaths, are very painful. Those who rake in the cash find it difficult to justify such horror. The semi-control by aerial bombings will bit by bit see to it that a solid resistance will emerge. It will. I am sure. (natch imho.)

Posted by: Noirette | Jul 29 2007 19:42 utc | 4

Could be the Taliban is gaining some capability to respond to the bombers:
Taliban’s failed first use of SAM still worrisome
(Though it’s just as likely that the death-raining warrior pilots just panicked at the sight of some bird, and were having hysterics.)

Posted by: Alamet | Jul 29 2007 22:36 utc | 5

I am upset and dismayed that the US government can kill hundreds of people, say it was a gathering of Taliban and not release any good hard evidence. They said it was people gathering to watch a hanging. Even if this was a truth how much choice would civilians be given to attend. Had people said no we do not want to go watch it, it is possible they would have received a noose for themselves.

Posted by: sm | Aug 4 2007 15:29 utc | 6

Oh sm, calm down little one, America is all white-hat, all the time, good doers, and pleasin to the Lord, we only git them thare evil doers, our justice is swift and right, God is on our side, simple as that.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 4 2007 21:49 utc | 7